flowchart LR OQ["Overarching Question:<br/>Are 'food deserts' in the US linked to health problems like diabetes?"] AQ1["Analytical Q1:<br/>How do income levels correlate with the presence of food deserts?"] AQ2["Analytical Q2:<br/>How does access to quality food vary across the US?"] AQ3["Analytical Q3:<br/>How many fast food restaurants per capita are in each state/county?"] AQ4["Analytical Q4:<br/>How do diabetes and obesity incidence patterns vary across the country?"] OQ --> AQ1 OQ --> AQ2 OQ --> AQ3 OQ --> AQ4
Final Project Report: Are food deserts in the US linked to health problems like diabetes?
1. Overarching and Analytical Questions
The Green Apple team investigated the overarching question: “Are food deserts in the United States linked to health problems such as diabetes?” Building on this central question, the team examined four analytical questions:
- How do income levels correlate with the presence of food deserts?
- How does access to quality food vary across the United States?
- How many fast food restaurants per capita are located in each state and county?
- How do diabetes and obesity incidence patterns vary across the country?
Note: The USDA’s Food Access Research Atlas defines low access to healthy food as being far from a supermarket.
2. Background and Previous Art
Before starting our analysis, our team conducted background research to understand existing statistics and visualizations on this topic. Key findings from this background work include:
- About 18.8 million people, or 6.1% of the U.S. population, live in census tracts that are both low income and have low access to healthy food (USDA Food Access Research Atlas).
- Approximately 85% of counties with the highest food insecurity are rural (Feeding America, Map the Meal Gap).
- Nearly 9 out of 10 high food insecurity counties are located in the South (Feeding America, Map the Meal Gap).
- Approximately 20% of Americans with diabetes experience food insecurity (American Diabetes Association).
We also found a heat map illustrating the percentage of Americans who are food insecure, which helps contextualize the patterns we explore in our own analysis.(Food Deserts and Inequality) 
3. Data Collection
This project draws on several complementary data sources to examine food access and health. PLACES Census Tract Health Data 2025 provides modeled estimates of chronic disease outcomes and health-related behaviors for adults at the tract level across the United States, while NaNDA Eating and Drinking Places data supply counts and densities of public-facing food establishments by tract and ZIP code over time. The USDA Food Access Research Atlas 2019 contributes tract-level indicators of low income and low access to supermarkets, and the U.S. Census Bureau’s ACS B01003 (2015–2019) offers core population denominators for small areas. Finally, the CDC US Diabetes Surveillance System adds surveillance indicators on diabetes burden and risk factors, allowing the team to connect neighborhood food environments with diabetes outcomes over recent years.